IIM Ahmedabad, PwC India establish research, innovation forum

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) in collaboration with PwC India announced the establishment of the ‘PwC ESG Research and Innovation Forum’. The forum has been set up for the initial period of five years by the IIMA Endowment Fund (IIMAEF).

The PwC ESG forum aims to be an avenue for knowledge and sharing and exchange driven by a series of events that the Forum will host at IIMA. "This Forum will play an important role in initiating the right conversations within the ESG space in India and in contributing towards thought leadership in ESG research, industry use cases and timely policy interventions." read the IIMA press statement.

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On facilitating the setting up of the ESG Forum at IIMA, IIMA EF, CEO Chhavi Moodgal, said: “IIMA Endowment Fund focuses on continuously identifying opportunities in which IIMA wants to build academic and research capabilities - particularly topical themes like sustainability which will be relevant from a public policy and industry perspective over many years. Accordingly, we have also been instrumental in identifying corporate collaborations for the Institute. We are pleased to announce another concrete step towards shaping the ESG ecosystem in India through the PwC ESG Forum. This Forum will be an important platform to support dialogue and dissemination of cutting-edge research to improve ESG performance of Indian organizations and enterprises. We hope that the industry-academia collaborative effort of this Forum will help in spreading the word on ESG themes and research globally. We thank Sanjeev Krishan and the PwC India team for this contribution to IIMA.”

Emphasizing the need for more ESG focused collaborations and conversations, IIMA director, Errol D’Souza said: "ESG has become a mainstay in every boardroom discussion and is being looked at as a quality standard that determines capital allocation, investor valuation, capacity building and the overall sustainability quotient of the company. Although ESG incorporation in India is in a nascent stage, the room for growth is tremendous. This scenario makes the need for a forum – a common platform for stakeholders across the spectrum – compelling. We are happy to partner with PwC to launch this Forum and are confident that it will provide the much-needed action space for academia, industry, think tanks and policymakers to come together, deliberate on best practices and devise a roadmap that is aligned with ESG goals, globally.”